Life Casting

Sculpting open eyes is the most difficult task in life casting. But learning the skill is essential if you want to create a ‘true to life’ appearance. You can source prosthetic eyes from EnvironMolds. 

Alginate is simple to use. But the effectiveness lies in correctly following the mix ratio and then applying the mixture properly on the model.

Life casting can result in a beautiful piece of art that with the right pose. Usually that take an experienced artist to visual a final casting even before laying out the lifecasting materials. An interesting pose usually means that a model must place his or her body in extreme positions. So that good prior planning by the artist is essential to keep the model comfortable during unusual positions.

Of course, when working on small and easy-to-mold body parts such as the hands and feet, the body mold making process is quite straightforward. The artist simply mixes the mold making material in an appropriately sized container before immersing the hand or foot in the desired pose. The alginate quickly sets around the limb to form the body mold. The model can slowly wiggle out the hand after only a few minutes and the mold is ready for casting.

However, this technique does not work for larger sections of the body. For instance, if

MoldEZ Hair release is an important tool for life casting artists.

Summary – Hair presents a challenge when making a lifecasting of the head or face. Following the correct procedures in molding hair will add to the comfort of your model as well as the quality of your life cast.

Body casting is not a difficult procedure as there are many YouTube videos to teach the newcomer. However, a bit more care is needed when molding specific parts of the face and head such as the nostrils, ears and especially the facial and head hair. Improperly applied mold material will result in a distorted cast, or worse tangled hair that will certainly tear the mold apart when demolding, not to mention upsetting the model.

In protecting hair from tangling in the mold material, the traditional method is to slather on petroleum jelly. However, though this will minimize tangling, petroleum jelly is difficult to remove from the model’s hair, oft

Alginate, that odd substance derived from seaweed, has several uses. Sure, you can use it as food supplement and for dental casts. Of course, those are the less interesting uses.

Let's talk about the fun way you can use alginate: alginate casting!

Alginate is one of the safest ways you can make molds and castings of people's hands, feet, faces, or even bodies. Since it's made out of seaweed, there are small odds of an allergic reaction.

That makes it a great choice for your next casting project. Since you want the best possible results, let's jump right into the tips.

1. Prep Your Work Area

Before you mix a thing or drop your prisoner -- oh, we meant volunteer -- onto a stool, you must prep your work area.

You

You can immediately distinguish the talented lifecasting artist from the novice by a glance at the eyes. That is the eyes of the face or portrait casting. As even a beginning life casting artist can pull of a passable face casting with little to no experience. The face with its closed eyes is about as inspirational as a death mask. Such as the face castings made by European undertakers for their deceased clients in the 17th and 18th centuries. They were important memorials at the time, since photography had not yet taken hold. A plaster mold was made of the departed ‘s face and then a plaster or wax cast was made from the mold. Today the technique is more advanced in the use of skin safe products such as alginate and silicone, but sadly the results are most often the same. A duplicate of the face or head in an eyes-closed reposed position – leading the viewer wondering if the subject is asleep, bored or no longer with us.

David Parvin, sculptor, life casting artist, author and life casting instructor demonstrates how to life cast a clothed figure using alginate molding.

Life casting perfect ears tutorial: This video explains the two methods most frequently used to cast perfect since ears are very difficult to cast due to their delicateness. The first method is that used be special F/X artist and the second method which was developed by the late Dave Parvin is used successfully in life casting.